The report says the Jornal do Brasil, which was the first paper in the country on the web when it launched online in 1995, will be discontinued from 1 September.

Readers of the newspaper were apparently informed by a full page advert published yesterday.

The future of the print newspaper was already in question, with readers invited to take part in an online survey in June about possible publishing changes. But with the survey responses due to be released in August, the decision to close the publication came earlier than expected.